Jane Ryan
by spinhina
Summary: AU. Jane Wynand's flight to England crashed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She now finds herself in the hell called Rapture. But will she get out before Rapture's monsters swallow her whole? It's just "Oh, what if Jack was female?" Bad summary is bad. Critical reviewers will get free ADAM.
1. Chapter 1

~1960, Mid-Atlantic~

Jane Wynand gingerly held her smoking cigarette between her first and second fingers of her left hand. She picked up her zippered, chocolate leather wallet from the items strewn across the airplane tray. Sepia eyes scanned the monotone picture of the three people, her mother, in a light cardigan from whom Jane had gotten her eyes, and her father, his sleeves rolled up over his burly arms, from whom Jane had gotten her immense will. Her father joked about how when she was little, she would look like a boy in her crew-cut hair, and folded-up pant legs while her friends wore floral-patterned babydoll dresses and lacy ribbons. Jane chuckled, lightly brushing her curled hair with her free hand. Her mother insisted on getting her ponytail curled a few years back, when it was swinging into fashion. Now, bright colors and pant-suits decorated the fashion magazines strewn across the mahogany coffee table with the women caked in makeup.

And in the middle of the picture, herself. Jane's arms were holding her parents close, with a lopsided grin across her face. She remembered the day of the photo: her mother huffy with Jane for showing up at the studio last minute from wearing her old shorts and loose v-neck sweater. Fortunately, her mother had known something like this and prepared an outfit for her. Jane was hastily rushed into a bathroom with the threat of her livid mother hanging over head if she wasn't out in ten minutes or less, as her father complained that Jane was spending too much time with her friends. Much to her mother's satisfaction, Jane emerged from the bathroom in her fancy button-down short sleeved shirt tucked into an elegant dark felt skirt resting on her hips. Jane didn't get why she was so worried about this picture-something about her only daughter growing up too quickly. Back then she was in high school- a sweet, outspoken girl of seventeen.

Now at the tender age of nineteen, Jane was visiting her cousins in England. Her mother had told Jane to start packing only a week before, wanting it to be some sort of surprise. Her father's sister was ill, apparently, and Jane never got to know her cousins very well anyway. Jane should know her extended family, her mother reasoned, and besides, wasn't it almost her birthday?

Jane set the wallet down and looked at the other items on the tray. She noticed a blue package with a bright red bow in the left corner. Jane remembered her father giving it to her just before she had to catch her plane and telling her to follow the instructions thoroughly. Instructions? Back then Jane didn't notice because her flight was about to take off, and Mother, I will take care of myself, it's only two weeks, I took enough clothing, I know where Auntie Pamela lives, I'll tell Cheryl and Max and all the others about you and Father and Kansas, I will be fine, Mother, really! Yes, I know, England is not Overlook, I told you, I can take care of myself. Mother, my flight is about to take off, I really must go! And her father ushered her into a corner and darkly whispered the words to her as he passed the present into her hands.

"Jane, you're special. You were born to do great things. Now go catch your flight." Her father fondly patted her on the back and walked over to join his wife as Jane waved goodbye for the last time, skittering to her airplane as the lady on the intercom announced the last call for the boarding of Flight 176 to England. She hadn't had the time to ponder on her father's cryptic and obscure words. Now, as she pondered over them, Jane noticed a note attached to the box.

"Would you kindly...?"

= w =

Jane was in water.

It was the only thing she could gather at the moment. The next thing she could gather was that she was drowning.

Jane frantically regarded her surroundings: aqua-green water, a lady's floral print purse, a pearl necklace floating out. As her head swished side to side, it tilted up to see the plane's propeller swirl by with a sickening winding noise. Soon the rest of the plane followed, in flames. Jane watched the blinking lights of the body of the plane sink slowly down, as her mind panicked further and looked up once again to see the orange surface of the water anticipating her, floating closer to her.

When the young woman's head finally emerged from the water, all she could see were flames. Her plane had gone down in flames. As she coughed up the water in her lungs, treading water, Jane struggled to remember what had happened. The plane had started shaking; then, a lady's screams, and the plane's violent turbulence and-water. Had the plane been hijacked? Jane suddenly couldn't remember. She decided to just go along with the idea of the hijacking and somehow find her bearings first.

Swimming under dark clouds alongside bright orange flames, Jane looked ahead to see a tall, eerie lighthouse. A lighthouse in the middle of nowhere? Then again, at least it was some form of land; maybe she could phone someone inside. Jane reluctantly swam towards the dark concrete structure, wet and cold. Metal pieces of what was once the plane floated by her.

As the lighthouse drew nearer, Jane could see a set of stairs illuminated by rather bright lights lining the railing. One was one the verge of shorting out. The stairs came up directly from the water, allowing Jane to gratefully climb up and rest after almost drowning. She took this opportunity to somehow dry out a bit. Her leather knee boots were pretty useful at keeping the water out; little did she know her boots would be very useful later. Up above, the moon glittered as if the night were one from a romantic play. Maybe perhaps Jane was part of some romantic show, and inside a handsome, lonely young man might be conveniently waiting for her, perhaps to nurse her back to health, as if the whole affair was some cheesy love story. Maybe that was what motivated Jane to explore the lighthouse instead of resting a bit further, and waiting for other survivors, if there were any.

Inside, the lighthouse was in complete darkness, save for one solitary light. A shivering, trembling Jane stepped inside, hoping for some sort of heat. As soon as she stepped inside completely, Jane swirled around to hear a solid thud, the door closing Jane inside the dark, cold lighthouse.

Luckily, the lights inside switched on quickly, revealing a larger than life bust of an angry looking man with a red banner strung across under his face.

_No gods or kings. Only man._

Jane recognized it as propaganda, and gazed in silence at it before moving on inside the lighthouse. Jane moved under the large bust on the wall, where the lights switched on over a set of stairs. She followed the stairs down to find another short flight of stairs, illuminating as Jane approached them. Another curving set of stairs revealed a concrete floor with a sphere-like submariner thing, hatch swung open. Jane recognized it as a bathysphere, a device used to go under the sea to study it. She had learned about these in a book she had read. Sweet, calming violin music was playing from somewhere as Jane stepped in cautiously to inspect the bathysphere further. It was rather luxurious, with comfortable seats and a regal atmosphere. She sat herself down and sighed. Jane turned her head to look at the lever to operate the bathysphere. She was tempted to pull the lever, and see where it could take her. It didn't look like she was going anywhere: she even doubted whether or not the thing actually worked.

Deciding to test her luck after a plane crash, Jane pulled the bathysphere lever to hear the glass hatch slam shut, followed by a very bad feeling in her stomach as bubbles outside rose up and the view became nothing but the very water Jane had struggled to get out of minutes earlier, only darker. Having nothing to do except contemplate her fate from here, Jane watched the view as a rather fancy sign with a sculpture of a man holding it up marked the distance of the descent so far. Schools of small fish swum quietly by, as if they had not a care in the world.

10 fathoms...18 fathoms...

Suddenly the view was blocked by something, and then, an old, dusty film projector came to life, showing an odd emblem Jane had never seen before. Happy music sprung up from the projector. Next the projector showed a man lighting a lady's cigarette with...her fingers? The text above and below said, _Fire at your fingertips! Incinerate: Plasmids by Ryan Industries. _ Fire at your fingertips? What an absurd thing, Jane thought. Fire wasn't exactly a controllable thing! And Plasmids? What were those? Who were Ryan Industries? The name sounded familiar; perhaps Jane had heard it in a commercial somewhere.

A younger version of the man whose bust Jane had seen in the lighthouse appeared on screen next, with the words "From the desk of Ryan".

"I'm Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?" A picture of a man apparently working on a farm, wiping his sweat appeared. "No, says the man in Washington, it belongs to the poor," The man was now being chased by a bald eagle swooping down from the Capitol building. "No, says the man in the Vatican, in belongs to God," Now God's hand was coming down to grab the man in front of a Church. "No, says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone!" A large scythe and hammer was coming down on the man in front of a Russian palace. The man, Andrew Ryan's voice grew with intensity and anger as he said the words. The picture of Ryan from the beginning reappeared. "_I_ rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose..." The projector promptly shut off, but the voice remained as the view was revealed once again to show a sea floor.

"Rapture."

Jane was pressed to the glass hatch now, feeling the cold surface against her palms as she gazed out onto the city under the sea. The bathysphere passed large buildings and a huge sculpture of a man like the one she had passed holding up the sign. Fish swam by the buildings, which were connected with glass tunnels. Neon signs advertising different companies like Finley's were brightly lit up; yet, there wasn't a soul in sight. At least, not in the tunnels.

Truly a magnificent city under the sea.

Ryan's voice continued on, though Jane only half-listened to his words.

"A city where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, too."

The bathysphere soon approached three rings, each with lit-up words on top. The rings seemed to form some sort of dock for the bathysphere.

"All good things...of this earth...flow...into this city...?" Jane murmured, reading the text on the rings. What kind of city was this?

The bathysphere docked itself in a small room decorated with posters of odd flask-like things holding a red fluid, and more advertisements for plasmids. Jane was then jerked upwards as the bathysphere ascended in the water.

= w =

The bathysphere slowed its ascent until it was stopped completely.

"Ah!" A humanoid figure was visible through the thin veil of water and stood a little ways from the bathysphere. Finally, a person! He seemed scared, though...

"Just please, don't hurt me!" Wait, what? Was this man...pleading for his life?

Another person was approaching him, Jane could see that now.

The man was stabbed with a knife, and the other person cackled, an evil, inhuman cackle. Jane gasped and quickly retreated to the back wall, trying to be as silent as possible, praying the...thing didn't see her. The man was stabbed again, the final stab. The creature had inhuman speed, too, that it used. Jane covered her mouth in disgust as the thing pulled its knife out of the man, spewing blood. Her heart pounded out of its chest as silence fell upon the scene. The thing turned to look at the bathysphere, its knife now revealed in the light to be two glinting, curved, sickles.

"_Is it someone new...?" _As the thing spoke, Jane could feel the fear rising in her chest. She tried to stay back, as far back and _away_ from the thing as possible.

The thing screamed and jumped out of sight. Jane's heart was in her throat. Slowly, she moved away from the wall, lest the thing try to break the bathysphere wall from behind. Jane suddenly looked up to hear groaning and creaking on top of the bathysphere, along with the thing moaning and screaming in frustration. Jane tried to scream but nothing could come out as she crouched in fear on the floor, with her eyes shut and ears covered in a futile attempt to somehow escape from the thing.

When the groaning resided, Jane flitted open her eyes, looking around to see the thing give up. It looked back before completely giving up and running off. Jane didn't want to be here. Jane wanted to go back, to Overlook, to her mother and father, to that sweet guy in the ice cream parlor, who would always give her an extra scoop, and the shy grin he would give her when she told him. A sick feeling in her stomach, she heard a voice over the service radio and some hope returned to her sickened soul. Picking the radio up, the radio showed the picture of a handsome young man named Atlas.

"I don't know how you survived that plane crash, but I'm not one to question providence. I'm Atlas: I aim to keep you alive. Now keep on movin'. We're gonna have to get you to higher ground." He spoke with a distinct accent, and seemed to know where Jane had come from. Had he seen her from a camera or something from the lighthouse. Nevertheless, Jane had to keep on moving, like Atlas said. The bathysphere hatch opened with a whoosh, yet she was still hesitant to leave the bathysphere, into the unfamiliar territory of Rapture.

"Take a deep breath, and step outta the bathysphere. I won't leave ya twisting in the wind." Jane took a shaky step out, and forced her legs to move. She walked briskly to the end of the short hall, regarding the fresh blood on the floor and the dead corpse. Turning her head to the right, Jane saw something called a Vita-chamber, and some boxes. Jane abruptly turned to the left and continued, noticing the signs saying, _We are not your property! _What the hell had happened to this place?

Atlas continued, "We're gonna need to draw her outta you're gonna have to trust me." Jane was willing to trust almost anyone at this point. Continuing down the hall and up a few stairs, she could hear the thing, evidently a female, snarling.

"_I'll wrap you in a sheet..." _Jane could now see the figure of the thing. In the dark, damp room, fear returned to her and started eating away at her will again, but hearing Atlas' voice restored more of it back.

_"_Just a little further..." Somehow controlling the lights, Atlas shined a spotlight on the thing, shedding light on the room, littered with protest signs. It also shed light on the thing, wearing red clothes, and horrible lumps all over its body. A rain of bullets came down upon the thing, and it snarled again, jumping up the wall to escape the torrent of lead.

"How do you like that, sister?!" The source of Atlas' bullets came into view, a small flying robot following the splicer with the spotlight following. An alarm was blaring, so Jane guessed that Atlas had hacked a security robot. Flying security robots? How did Rapture have flying robots, let alone security robots. Once the thing was chased away, the spotlight returned its original spot highlighting red carpet and a broken wall.

"Now, would you kindly find a crowbar or something? Bloody splicers sealed Johnny in before they... goddamn splicers." Apparently, the thing was a splicer, whatever the hell that was. The way Atlas talked about them, it seemed they were common around Rapture. Now Jane _really_ wanted to go back home, to forget all about this place.

Jane approached the spotlight to "find a crowbar or something". It wouldn't hurt to have something to defend herself, if she was to get out of this hellhole. Atlas couldn't always be with her. Looking among the remains of the crumbled wall, she found a red wrench. Picking it up instantly gave Jane a boost of courage. She gave a few practice swings, then took a deep breath. She looked at the hole, covered by a few pieces of the wall that had fallen down and noticed she could easily bang a way clear through it into the next room. Mustering her strength, she swung the wrench up and hit the wall as hard as she could. Sure enough the wall broke, and a stairway was revealed. As soon as Jane started climbing, though, a desk on fire was hurtled towards her. Jane quickly dodged it. More splicers, she thought. Jane went up the stairs, and saw a splicer to her right. The splicer screamed as Jane ran towards him, yelling, her wrench aimed for her target. The splicer tried to hit her, and succeeded, but Jane hit him a few more times, and he was down. Jane suddenly freezed in place. Had she...killed him. In her defense, he had tried to kill her, too. But she couldn't let this faze her. She had to get home, and nothing was going to stop her. Searching him for something useful, Jane found a first aid kit and something called an EVE hypo. Was EVE a drug? It had a needle to be injected into the body. Jane took it just in case. Maybe she could cash it in later for more health kits.

A little alcove behind the splicer held some potato chips and a pep bar. Jane was pretty hungry at this point. She hadn't even had dinner on the plane before it crashed. Hungrily, Jane opened the bag and munched down the chips, pocketing the bar for later. Continuing on, she came out of the alcove and continued on to a set of stairs at the other end of the room. She noticed an odd recording being played.

"My daddy's _smarter_ than Einstein, _stronger_ than Hercules, and lights a fire with a snap of his fingers! Are you as good as my daddy, mister? Not if you don't visit the Gatherer's Garden, you aren't!" Jane arrived at the top of the stairs decorated by neon signs advertising Plasmids. She was greeted by a rather creepy-looking vending machine playing and odd recording with sculptures of little girls. The vending machine was a "Gatherer's Garden", apparently, and it sold these odd Plasmids. Curiously, Jane approached said innocent looking vending machine. In the pickup was a physical, tangible Plasmid bottle. Jane cautiously picked up the needle that was holding some of it.

_Well, I'm already in hell. If these Plasmids do what they say, might as well try it, _Jane thought. Putting her wrench aside in her knee high boots, she jabbed the hypodermic needle of the injection in her right wrist, underneath her tattooed wrists. Her wrists began to shake immediately as she dropped the needle in shock. Moaning in pain, she could only watch as the veins in her wrists turned blue and electricity began to flow between her hands.

Atlas' voice came back over the shortwave radio. "Steady now! Your genetic code is being rewritten- just hold on and everything will be fine!"

Jane regarded his voice with little attention. She was more focused on what was happening to her hands, and more importantly, the searing pain in them! She began to walk backwards, away from what caused all this _pain._ Jane turned around and saw the stairs and a railing enclosing the top of the stairs. Jane groaned from the pain again and her legs continued on, going to the railing to hold on to something, maybe to somehow drown out or transfer the pain. As she reached the railing, she could feeling more throbbing and even more pain as she ripped over the railing and tumbled down to the purple carpet.

= w =

"This little fish looks like she just had her cherry POPPED!...wonder if she's still got some ADAM on her?" A splicer's inhuman voice bent down to Jane's face. Jane opened her eyes a crack to see a rusty pipe inches from her face. The splicer reeked of fish guts, and it was all Jane could do to not throw up what bare food was left in her stomach. Jane closed her eyes a bit more. Well, it looks like you're done for, Jane. Goodbye to the world!

A large creak of metal against metal was heard, and another splicer said, "You hear that? Let's bug!" Jane opened her eyes just a bit again to see another splicer's legs running away.

"Weak! You're a weak chopper!" The first splicer taunted.

"This little fish ain't worth toeing it with no Big Daddy!" Big Daddy? What was that? Was that... what the recording in the vending machine was talking about? Stronger than Hercules, huh...

"Yellow! Always have been! You'll be no better off with the metal daddy, little fish. See you floating in the briney..." The splicer's white, half-shattered rabbit mask was visible, and his pipe even closer to Jane's face than before. He ran off and Jane was left to think about this metal "Big Daddy". Her eyes lethargically closed to rest for a few seconds.

She heard a growl and opened her eyes. A huge metal man-thing was holding a drill. Large enough to pierce through humans. The lights in his overly large helmet were glowing yellow and his large boots clunked against the tile floor. A little girl appeared in front of him and spoke with unhuman tones under her voice.

"Look, Mr. Bubbles, it's an angel! I can see light coming from her belly..." The little girl was carrying a large needle, now inches from Jane's face, even closer than the splicer's pipe was. The girl's skin was pale green, and she was wearing a tattered purple dress. Her feet were bare; odd, since Jane had seen needles and shards of glass all over the place-things that could potentially, no, definitely pierce a little girl's skin. "Wait a minute, she's still breathing. It's alright, I know she'll be an angel soon." Jane's eyes then took control of themselves and shut themselves after she saw both of the figures leave her line of sight.

When Jane finally came to again, she felt...powerful, more so than before. Atlas came in over the radio again to check on Jane.

"You alright there, girlie? First time plasmid's a real kick from a mule. But there's nothin' like a fistful o' lightning, is there?" So what Jane had used was a plasmid. Kick from a mule, all right. Felt more like a kick from an elephant.

Jane checked her hand to see the "fistful of lightning" Atlas had been talking about. Sure enough, the veins in her hands were now surging and glowing with stratosphere blue electricity. She tried it out on the sparking button to open the door. Sure enough, it worked; the large door slid open, allowing Jane to cross into one of the glass tunnels she had seen during the bathysphere ride.

Jane started the walk into the tunnel. Before she could finish it, though, a piece from the plane she had been riding crashed in through the glass, bringing some water. Unfazed, Jane continued, walking along the red cushioned seats and under the thin veil of water rolling off the outer metal shell, wetting the parts that had somewhat dried off after the ride in the bathysphere. She continued on, looking outside to see a "Fleet Hall". The glass walkway had already been leaking water and was in no fit condition to be walking on. Some unfortunate fish that had managed to swim inside were now flopping, the life draining out of them as they dried off.

Jane turned left at the end to see two hatches; one leaking, and one up some stairs. Equipped with her handy wrench, she chose the one up the stairs over the one leaking water. Looking around in the dark room, another glowing EVE hypo was found against the green and white tiled floor.

Atlas' voice jumped to life again as he warned Jane. "Splicer! Give 'em the combo-zap 'em then whack 'em. One-two punch! Remember, one-two punch!" Using the technique with her handy wrench and the Electro-Bolt plasmid, Jane was able to kill the splicer in one whack of the wrench. Pretty handy, this plasmid thing was!

A further search of the dark yielded a first-aid kit. _That makes two,_ Jane thought. _I'm going to need all I can get._

Fighting the splicer, Jane had gone down the stairs into a regal-looking office with a body in. She regarded the body and got another EVE hypo from it. Going back up the stairs to another large door to the right, which had a splicer waiting for her. Jane used the technique Atlas told her about and continued on.

Curious about the EVE hypos she had collected, Jane decided to try one out. She inserted the needle like she had done with the plasmid, and the hypo refueled the plasmid, which had apparently been using EVE, whatever it was. Continuing up the stairs with her plasmid recharged, Jane approached the door at the end of the room. She heard another splicer, and quickly finished him off, regarding the fire. Jane headed toward the open elevator shaft at the end and stepped in, menacingly tapping the wrench against her other hand.

As the elevator slowly began climbing, Atlas began speaking to her again.

"Listen- I've got a family. I need to get them out of here. But the splicers have cut me off from them-if you can reach them in Neptune's Bounty, then maybe, just maybe- I know you must feel like the unluckiest girl in the world right now, but you're the only hope I have of seeing my wife and child again. Go to Neptune's Bounty...find my family...please!" Atlas pleaded. Jane looked out the view as he spoke. Sounded like everyone who lived here was screwed one way or another. Jane decided to help the poor Atlas and find his family at...wherever Neptune's Bounty was.

When the elevator slowed to a stop, Jane could hear a female splicer singing. Hiding against the wall, she could see the figure singing to a baby carriage. The figure reached inside to pick the baby up...and pulled out a revolver. Jane ran inside the tunnel, Electro-Bolt equipped. When the splicer was stunned, she hit the splicer as hard as she could. Picking up the pistol and the rounds, Atlas radioed in to Jane again.

"Plasmids changed everything. They destroyed our bodies, our minds. We couldn't handle it. Best friends butchering one another, babies strangled in cribs. The whole city went to hell." A blinking sign saying, "Happy New Year! 1959" was half-fallen on her left. A sign said it was the Kashmir restaurant. Unnerving pictures of the masks the splicers had been wearing were hung up on the walls, and party hats and such littered the tables and chairs, like someone had left a party in the midst of it.

At the end, there were bathrooms. Naturally, Jane went in the ladies side first. The ghost of a lady was standing at a sink. At this point, Jane didn't feel too scared about anything. The whispering ghost went about her business as Jane searched the bathroom to find a first-aid kit and an audio diary.

"I'm too spliced up, too spliced up!" The ghost's eerie voice echoed through the bathroom shedding some more light on what happened to the citizens. Jane had also found champagne, and on impulse took a sip. She felt a bit healthier, but her EVE diminished a bit. She decided not to drink until she needed it.

Approaching the entrance, a splicer attacked her from the side. Jane fired her pistol a few times and the splicer was dead. She continued on and decided to search the men's side as well, to find any sort of help.

In the last stall, a hole was blown clear through to the hallway into Footlight theater. The radio burst back to life after a short static.

"Careful, now...would you kindly lower that weapon for a minute?" Jane obliged without a second thought, continuing on, balancing herself on top of the beams holding the spotlights. She dared to look down and saw a little girl like the one she saw earlier stabbing the dead body of a splicer. Was that what the girl was about to do to her when she was knocked out.

"You think that's a child down there? Don't be fooled. She's a Little Sister now. Somebody went and turned a sweet baby girl into a monster. Whatever you thought about right and wrong on the surface, well that don't count for much down here in Rapture." Jane continued down stairs and looked through glass to the girl. Pale, sickly skin around dark-rimmed, glowing yellow eyes. Jane shivered, wanting to get away from the monster girl. The Little Sister stabbed the body with her syringe-harvester, red fluid flowing into the vial.

"Those Little Sisters, they carry Adam- the genetic material that keeps the wheels of Rapture turning. Everybody wants it. Everybody _needs_ it." A splicer walked in on the Little Sister doing her work. Looking around, he motioned for the Little Sister to be quiet as he slowly approached her. Scared, the girl balled her fists, lifted her head and delivered a bloodcurdling scream. The splicer hit the girl with the butt of his gun, but he was inevitably doomed, as Jane would learn. The metal man jumped down from a balcony, the once soft yellow light now blaring red. The splicer attempted to shoot the metal hunk down, but he knew he was no match. The metal man threw a chair and the splicer deftly dodged it, looking back at the entrance to find it shut tightly. Frantically, the splicer looked behind him to find the metal man right behind him, drill coming right at him, knocking him against the wall, the drill spinning and-

-piercing straight through the man, spewing blood against the wall, the splicer shaking violently, before having his head slammed repeatedly against the glass wall Jane was watching through, creating a hole to the right of Jane. The late splicer's bloodied body was carelessly tossed like a broken doll through the gaping hole.

Jane covered her mouth in fear and disgust, her legs frozen stiff. She tried to move back, but she was helplessly left to watch the now satisfied metal man trod away with the Little Sister.

"That's the Big Daddy. She gathers Adam, he keeps her safe."

The Big Daddy. Was Jane going to have to fight one of those? She hoped that she didn't have to. The brute way he reacted when the splicer was threatening the Little Sister...not to mention his sheer size and that _drill_. As the Big Daddy continued on, Jane quickly searched the splicer for anything useful, before continuing on her own way, trembling from the...pleasant introduction of the Big Daddy.


	2. Chapter 2

Hooray, Chapter two! ^ _ ^ Thank you for the follows and the favorites and the reviews. Is my writing really that good? / Updates are going to be _**extremely**_ slow since school has started and that takes precedence over anything. I also have found myself bombarded with extra-curricular activities, and basketball season is starting soon. I might put the story on hiatus a couple of times if I need to. So please forgive me for not having a regular update schedule! Thank you to my beta-reader, hunter415. = w = If I could, I would give you lots and lots of cake. But alas, the cake is a lie, so you'll have to manage with virtual cookies. Speaking of which, GLaDOS is sorta in the amazing movie called Pacific Rim. Ah, but I digress.**  
**To Haytham Kenway (lol, I finished ACIII instead of writing this chapter like I should have been): There will not be any dialogue from Jane unless I really, _**really**_ feel like it. In the game, Jack is silent, so I kinda wanted Jane to be silent as well, or as much as she can be.  
Enjoy!

Jane Wynand walked the dark, hellish halls of Rapture, the city under the sea. Her legs were still weak after the introduction of the Big Daddies roaming the halls carrying the innocent-looking Little Sisters. The stench of dead bodies and fish was everywhere, no matter how much you tried to escape it. Once she was out of this place, Jane was sure the smell would have made its way into the threads of her beige sweater and chocolate, pleated corduroy skirt forever. A shame, it was her favorite, too. That year her friends had been raiding Jane's closet because they didn't want her to look so old-fashioned. Brightly colored pant-suits were the new thing, why was she still wearing her drab outfits? Of course, Linda couldn't stand it when Jane insisted on keeping the skirts.  
"Of course, why not, Jane?! It's not my fault if you don't get any beaus, then!"  
"Well, I don't exactly see boys lining up around the corner for you, even when you wear your new fashions, with the big goggles and all."  
Linda had promptly marched out of Jane's room, exasperated. Two hours later, she had met her in the ice cream parlor a few ways off of Main Street, apologizing for offending Jane, and her sense of fashion, and oh, Jane, what would I do without you, I didn't mean it like that, Jane! And Jane just sat there, licking her chocolate ice cream, listening to all Linda had to say, blonde curls bouncing with every extravagant hand movement she made. Again, the shy boy had given her an extra scoop, and now he was glancing at her bashfully. She mouthed a silent thanks to him as Linda went on to yap about some celebrity or another. Jane giggled quietly as his face turned tomato red as he nodded his head with a small smile etching its way across his face.  
Oh, how she longed to be back there, in Overlook.  
Stabbing an EVE hypo into the flesh of her arm to recharge, Atlas radioed in to Jane.  
"If you see a splicer in the water, hit 'em with the Electro Bolt." Oh yeah, wasn't water conductive? Jane remembered learning something like that in the countless science classes she had been daydreaming in.  
Her boots squeaked against the tiled floor, which now held the bullet-riddled bodies of two splicers, each searched for loot. A large door slid up as Jane approached it, and she continued her mission to help Atlas.  
Conveniently, two splicers stood in a large puddle of water by a waterfall caused by a hole in the wall. Jane decided to try out her newly-learned principle and hit the water with the Electro Bolt, not daring to step near the water as the splicers fried to a crisp. Once she was sure they were done off, Jane carefully descended down the staircase to appear in a plaza, with another one of those odd "Vita-Chambers" in an alcove in the middle. Unsure what to do next, Jane headed right, where a sign was illuminated by an unseen light above.  
_Good Morning Rapture! Today's Bulletin: Stay up to date!_  
Heading toward it, Jane could see in the dark beyond the door a lit up sign.  
Neptune's Bounty  
Neptune's Bounty! That's where Atlas' family was! Jane quickly approached the sign in the darkness with excitement.  
"Security alert in progress."  
Oh, no, no no no no no. Please, she was so close! Metal slid over the doorway, blocking the entrance, and the alcove was bathed in alarming red light. The female announcer seemed happy Jane had tripped off the alarm, somehow. Jane hastily headed toward a tunnel to her side to escape the alarm; she didn't want to see what kind of bullets and how many security bots could fire at one time.  
The tunnel was revealed to be a lavatory, and Jane could hear a splicer pleading. Picking up a first-aid kit lazily tossed by a sink, she equipped her pistol, ready to fire. Sure enough, a splicer was waiting at the end, shouting at the alarm.  
"I did nothing, please!" Without a second thought, the splicer was fried and shot at. More splicers appeared, one shooting at her, a broken rabbit mask placed on her face to somehow hide the ugly tumors the ADAM left. A few shots later, Jane figured out that she had traveled in a circle; she was back at the plaza near the door to Neptune's Bounty. Standing around feeling rather dumb as she didn't know what to do, a bang was heard. Jane's instincts equipped her Electro Bolt waiting for the worst, which came in the form of just more splicers.  
"It's Ryan! Goddamn Andrew Ryan! He found us! Damn it! He's shut off all access to Neptune…" Atlas' quick, furious voice spoke as Jane took down the splicers standing carelessly in the water. "…there's another way to get there…head to Medical! What are you waiting for? Go!" Atlas commanded, and Jane timidly followed.  
The sign to her left said Medical; Jane scurried over, jumping over rubble, getting herself wet-again. At this point, Jane barely cared whether she was dry or damp; she had more important things such as staying alive on her mind.  
Following the sign to the medical pavilion, Jane could feel her stomach doing an Olympic trampoline routine as the door s slid shut in front and to her sides and the lights flickered out.  
"Ah, Christ, you're trapped! Gonna try and override the exit from here!"  
Scared, Jane looked around with futility until a large television screen flickered on, asking the viewer to stand by as the static resounded. She nearly jumped as a voice came on with a flitting picture of a man in a hat looking down. She recognized the man as Andrew Ryan, and the voice as his.  
"So tell me friend…which one of the bitches sent you? The KGB wolf? Or the CIA jackal?" KGB…wasn't that Russia's intelligence sector? The CIA was…why in the world did this man think she was a spy? All Jane was, was ill-fated. "Here's the news: Rapture isn't some sunken ship for you to plunder, and Andrew Ryan isn't some giddy socialite who can be slapped around by government muscle. And with that, farewell, or Dasvadinya. Whichever you prefer."  
Silhouettes of thuggish splicers accompanied with splicer grunts began swinging at the glass in front of the glass. Jane readied for attack, though somehow she wasn't sure she could take on the splicers.  
"I got it!" Atlas happily exclaimed over the radio. "Get out of there, get out, now!" Jane ran to the door as quick as she could and approached the lock to the medical pavilion.

= w =

"Now you've met Andrew Ryan, the bloody king of Rapture. Now get to the Emergency Access." Overflowing with contempt, Atlas' voice faded away over the radio as Jane was left to ponder on the poster over the bench, advertising a man named Dr. Steinman, who apparently used ADAM in plastic surgery. Jane shivered. She had always liked her face, but she new people who had gotten plastic surgery. Face, stomach, and most often breasts; Jane had to sheepishly admit, she was secretly a bit jealous.  
Continuing on, the Medical Pavilion was in no fit to be a medical pavilion. Of course, this was Rapture; at least there were functioning lights. Examining the nearby receptionist's desk, Jane found money; along with a corpse of the late receptionist, and an audio diary.  
Walking along, Jane cautiously approached an odd, offsetting vending machine called the "Circus of Values." A creepy looking clown decorated the display. Like the Gatherer's Garden, the vending machine was singing some sort of excuse for a jingle.  
Deciding to take a look at the items it had to offer, Jane quickly decided not to buy anything and move on, saving her money.  
A nearby broken security bot was jammed in a door way between two doors. Squatting down to it, Jane realized she could hack it. It wasn't too complicated; she had done this back in Overlook. A boy named Anthony had taught her how, using a security camera. She remembered the way his elfish green eyes had scrunched up, laughing when Jane had first attempted to without any prior knowledge; he'd caught her red-handed once, trying to hack a security camera.  
Now, remembering what Anthony had taught her, the security bot now whirred to life, flying up, releasing the door it was holding. The room beyond was the Emergency Access, and held a couple of splicers. As her friendly security bot-whom she had now named Margaret- took care of it, she searched around the small desk in the corner for any more useful things.  
Once the splicers were finished off, Jane headed up one of the staircases and to the lever granting her access. She pulled the lever and a splicer came into view within the doorway behind her.  
"If you wanna use the Emergency Access, you'll need Doctor Steinman's key. He's the one who runs this place. But I don't expect him to hand it to ya outta the milk of human kindness. Steinman ain't that kind, and frankly, I'm not sure he's still human." Jane's heart dropped down a million miles that moment.  
Not even sure if he's still human? Now there were no words at that point that could scare Jane more than that. She would've expected a doctor to understand the risks of ADAM, but this doctor seemed to be no better than the splicers.  
Jane was now standing in a balcony running around what looked like the room where she had first entered the medical pavilion. Splicer now poured out from the door in the front, and Jane was left struggling to survive and dodge the bullets as she shot at the screaming banshees.  
"Now you've rattled the monkey cage. Here they come."  
Bullets flying everywhere, Jane suddenly realized what the gun was that she had picked a few seconds earlier- a _machine gun!_ Heaven in the form of a gun for people like her who couldn't aim at all!  
Happily armed with her new machine gun, Jane went to where the splicers had come from, and searched for supplies. In the distance, she could hear a splicer taunting her.  
"Stop running like a fool! Come here now!"  
Well, if she insisted.  
A few shots and the splicer was dead. Peacefully continuing on, Jane saw what looked like to be a vent of some sort, with a small step at the bottom. Deciding not to bother with it, Jane walked along the hallway decorated with posters, approaching a door at the end.  
Feeling chillier than usual, an almost skeletal figure of a female ghost startled Jane when she got near the door. The ghost was banging on the door and moaning.  
"You promised me pretty, Steinman…you promised me pretty...now look at me…LOOK AT ME!" The ghost turned to reveal its disgusting face to Jane before slumping down against the door in defeat and fading away into the air.  
Jane gulped for a moment, contemplating the ghost's words. Noticing the door control on the side, Jane used it, and Atlas checked in on her.  
"You keep an eye peeled for Steinman. The daft bastard's set up shop in the surgery wing." Just the mention of surgery made Jane shiver fearfully as a chill worked down her spine. But what creeped out Jane the most was Atlas' next line.  
"You wanna find him, just follow the blood."  
The door opened to reveal pictures of a beautiful woman, now covered in the red substance. A splicer was nearby shrieking; Jane quickly used Electro Bolt. The splicer was revealed now to be an automatic turret. Deftly hacking it, Atlas tipped her to do what she just did more often.  
Looking around, Jane took a sip of what appeared to be coffee- it was actually rather good, contrary to her expectations, and Jane gained some EVE off of it. A turret was sitting in an alcove nearby, quick work for Jane, with the Electro Bolt and her hacking skills. The now friendly turret allowed Jane to pass through the alcove toward her goal.  
Muffled speech could now be heard, and Jane noticed a body of a surgeon lying face-down. Going on, another turret shot out at Jane, who quickly took cover behind a desk. It was by a sign pointing toward the surgery ward, and Jane decided not to hack this one. Continuing on, but quickly, Jane found another audio diary, and out of curiosity played it. It was for a lady named Tenembaum, and her voice possessed a strong, distinct German accent.  
"_I was at German prison camp only of sixteen years old when I realize I have love for science. German doctor, he make experiment. Sometime, he make scientific error. I tell him of this error, and this make him angry._"  
All the while Jane was walking on, the occasional hum from the security bot, using Electro Bolt to open a door, faraway shrieks of some splicer. Tenembaum's strong, feminine voice continued her tale.  
"_But then he asks, 'How can a child know such a thing?' I tell him, 'Sometimes, I just know.' He screams at me, 'Then why tell me?' 'Well,' I said, 'If you're going to do such things, then at least you should do them properly.'_" On a nearby desk, Jane noticed a new kind of gun, one she hadn't seen before. She soon realized it was an auto hack tool. Now she could hack for FREE! Of course, Jane hadn't bought out a hack yet, but maybe if she was ever stuck she could use this tool. After all, she wasn't a pro. Still, Jane couldn't help but ponder on why the tool was just lying around here. Some splicer must have mistaken it for a gun and thrown it away when they realized it wasn't.  
Jane continued to the next room, where two splicers were; from behind she approached them and deftly killed them, collecting some money and some ammo. Looking around the room for more supplies, she regarded the creepy vending machine and collected special ammo- armor piercing pistol rounds.  
A splicer was talking to herself again somewhere as Jane hurried up the stairs. However, the conversation turned to her pleading and her becoming fried as Jane approached the porch where she was, followed by the prompt explosion of the door. Another splicer stood behind, staggering as Jane hit it with a few rounds of the pistol.  
The room the splicer was standing in held portraits of people of easels, mourning their loss- in memory of. A desk sat in the middle, unilluminated and dark. More of the decent coffee was found, and another audio diary was there under one of the easels; titled Surgery's Picasso. Jane could only _guess_ as who the title was referring to. Under the easel, Jane suddenly realized she was stepping in blood, where Steinman had signed. Playing the audio diary, Steinman was revealed to be the author.  
"_When Picasso became bored of painting people, he started representing them as cubs and other abstract forms. The world called him a genius! I've spent my entire surgical career creating-"__  
_The audio diary was cut short when Atlas came in over the radio, warning Jane about the security cameras. Jane had tripped one of them off and a small alarm rung off. Hiding from the camera behind a wall, Jane used Electro Bolt on the camera to quickly pass through its line of sight without being detected. Even so, she decided to hack it while passing it because, well, why not?  
Walking along cautiously, Jane approached what looked like a dead body lying on some metal in front of a fire, like what you would use to cremate a body. Jane was sure that was the intent. Impulsively, she pressed a green button on the side, to watch the body slide into the fire. Jane closed her eyes, tipping her head down to send the soul her respects. Opening them once more, the metal bed was sliding back out holding an odd bottle similar to the plasmids surrounded by the ashes of the man. Picking it up, Jane realized it must be a gene tonic- there were occasional advertisements around for them. This one was named Hacker's Delight- it helped in hacking. If Jane failed and received an electric shock, the shock would help her heal. Well, that might be useful.  
Closing the furnace, Jane decided to continue on, going up the damp staircase. Hearing splicers, Jane equipped Electro Bolt and promptly shot when she saw a humanoid figure. A few bullets and the thing lay dead. Walking along, Jane encountered a small hole, the only way into the next room. Getting on all fours, Jane squeezed in the hole, barely enough to accommodate her. A pink neon sign lit up the floor, and a new plasmid lay inches away, called Incinerate! Oh, this must have been the one the first advertisement Jane saw was talking about! Fire at your fingertips…wait, that would burn you, wouldn't it? Then again, Electro Bolt should have shocked her…Jane decided not to think about it anymore and use the plasmid. Andrew Ryan's voice could be heard faintly, talking about parasites, flies, ointment and what not.  
Soon after she was done, splicers showed up behind the glass pane of the small office she had crawled into. They shrieked, the infernal animal masks dimly visible in the dark. Panicking, Jane remembered the fluid she was stepping across, from the other splicer. Deciding to try out her new plasmid, Jane aimed for the pool of liquid and snapped her fingers toward the dark substance, igniting the pool on fire, showing that it was indeed flammable. The splicers outside burned to a crisp as Jane explored the tiny alcove a bit more. The neon sign was revealed to be another Gatherer's Garden; an EVE hypo lay behind it, dimly glowing.  
"All roads in Rapture lead to Ryan. The security, the splicers, the Big Daddies, the Little Sisters; he pumps some kind of chemical in the air, pheromones they call it, makes 'em all dance to his tune." Jane could now tell Atlas hated this man with all, controlling everything. He acted like a king, though the way he had been talking in the bathysphere showed that he didn't support any type of ruler.  
Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Jane decided to think about all that later; once she got out. Continuing on, she realized she couldn't carry any more first-aid kits- her capacity was full. Oh well. Jane walked on, noticing the same vent from before. A few splicers lay ahead, and a turret, like before. After the splicers were but corpses on the floor, with no money or supplies on them, Jane walked on. A little alcove lay to the right on her way to the surgery ward. One of those blasted clown faces was there, indicating supplies. Approaching it, Jane found an audio diary on the chair next to it, titled, "Vandalism". Picking it up, she proceeded to disregard the annoying clown and play the audio diary, made by Andrew Ryan.  
"_It has been brought to my attention that some of the citizens have discovered ways to…hack the vending machines. I should not need to remind each and every citizen on Rapture that free enterprise is the foundation upon which our society has been established. Parasites will be punished." _  
Faced with a fork in the road on whether to go upstairs or down, Jane made a small detour downstairs. In a small corner, a huge lump of ice lay, holding something looking like a tool box, and something else. Staring at it, Jane was struck with what she thought was a great idea. Equipping Incinerate, she aimed for the ice and melted the ice with the fire from her fingertips. Like she thought, a tool box was inside with a wrench. Jane pocketed it in case her current one broke. Another audio diary was also there, and she picked it up. As soon as Ryan's finished, Jane played the other one, by a man named McDonagh.  
"_Steinman, I know Medical Pavilion is you manor, but you might wanna cogitate on this: ocean water is colder than a witch's tit."__  
_Jane couldn't help but snicker as she shot down a splicer behind the ice.  
"_You don't heat the pipes, the pipes freeze. Pipes freeze, pipes burst. Then Rapture leaks."__  
_Jane found a new gun beyond, just a slight detour. She should be getting back to Steinman, but she wanted to see what she could find.  
Over the whisper of the audio diary, Jane could hear a splicer cackling. Whipping around frantically, she tried to calm down as she listened to McDonagh.  
"_I realize you're a posh sorta geezer, and frankly, I don't give a toss if you piss or go fishin'. But once Rapture starts leakin', the old girl's never gonna stop. Then I'll be sure to tell Ryan he's got you to thank."_  
She could hear the splicer now, staying in the miniscule warmth of the light of the spotlight in the middle of the room. Instinctively, Jane turned to the left to meet with the pipe of a yelling splicer.


End file.
